This was a very difficult class, readings were overwhelming and the professor is really nitpicky when grading the long papers. Would definitely not recommend this class.

Overall, the class is meh. The first half of the course is what you expect from a normal history course, i.e. Wars, allies, kings and etc. You'll have a map quiz and 9 ID's. He'll give you 20 to study from and he will pick 9. I believe that exam is worth about 30% of your grade.

The following week, you have a take home midterm, he gives you the questions ahead of time. They have to be 4-5 pages each. You'll answer 2, so, your entire paper is 8-10 pages. This is worth about 25%.

He is a VERY picky grader. I think that has more to do with the class being so small that he nit-picks everything. That brings up another point, the class is so small but it took us close to 3 weeks to get our mid-term back. I wish he gave it back in time so I could've have done a P/NP(Which I will explain shortly).

The second half of the course gets very dull. He talks about the establishment of trade and printing presses. Very dry lectures. You do not learn much about the period of time other than the establishment of printing presses and trade. Who established what where. . This will lead you to your final. Another take home paper, 8-10 pages in total while answering 2 questions.

He tends to chastise the entire class for not answering question. The problem here is that he assigns so many readings. It comes up to be 150-200 pages a week. He says try to read at least half, but even then it seems a bit overkill because some of us have 2 or 3 other courses and the reading is just so much. Not to mention, most of the readings that are assigned are ALL the same but with different authors.

This was one of my toughest course at UCLA and I put in the time and effort in it and I only managed a B+. While my other courses this quarter I ended getting two A's putting in half the work. I personally felt that I deserved a better grade but I guess I'll have to chalk it up as a learning experience. Had he given our midterm back in time, I would've had my coveted 4.0 GPA for the quarter.

Yes, you can get an A in this course but you need the trifecta, Do the readings and ask and answer questions. Write in a manner that he approves and do well on your ID/ID exam.

The positives-
Class is small, so the class can work together and help each other out. It feels more like a capstone than anything else.

You do not have to buy the books. I got by without buying any, including his.Most of the readings are posted on CCLE.

The negatives-
Dry lecturer
Nitpicks your paper
Takes forever for him to get back your grade.
Tends to chastise the class frequently
Back to back "projects". Meaning, one week you'll have your ID/MAP exam, the following week you'll have to turn in your paper. We do have other courses and mid-terms to worry about, you know?

If I can go back and find a new course, I would. Not an enjoyable course. Only positive that came out of it was the entire class was on the same page.

P.S. He'll tell you about 100x his favorite city in the world is Venice.

Honestly the fact that I got a B+ was totally on me, my head just was not in this quarter. That being said, getting an A in Aslanians class is completely possible. The map quiz is easy, but do at least half the readings bc the midterm and final are based off of the readings. He grades easy on the quiz and harder on the midterm and final which consist of two essay questions...take home. He tells some funny stories here and there so he's a really likeable person but he knows his stuff very well so he goes fast and it's easy to get lost while taking notes. The best thing you can do is go see him during office hours especially when in regards to your midterm and final.